Monday, August 20, 2012

Demolition delights


Firstly, can I start by saying how nice it was to hear from you all about your husbands (or other halves) and to know that many of you are being driven equally crazy by men who either have no interest or excessive interest in the small domestic details.

After reading that post (yes, it appears Legoman does read the blog), we have managed to agree on a laundry door. I'm not holding my breath yet on the rest of the list. The plans come back in two days.

In the meantime we have been dragging our children around various demolition yards and miraculously agreeing on a few other purchases. Including some wonderful huge sliding windows,


some more reclaimed floorboards, and a gorgeous set of french doors. After vacillating between a large contemporary sliding door and these old french doors, Legoman came around to my vision and has even agreed to let me paint them. A colour even. (Legoman does not like surprises so I have learnt to do all negotiating up front). These doors, (a set of french doors stacked) will fit perfectly in the corridor between our new family/tv room and the kitchen. So I will be able to stand at my new island bench, supervising the appropriateness of tv shows without having to listen to any more of that Giggle and Hoot.


So, how does a girl get her husband on the same page? Bribery of course. Except in this house we call it   "Incentives". Now because this is a G rated blog,  I had to consider other options. Some of you may remember Legoman starting to cut a huge branch off our poinciana tree, oh , about a year ago.



 Well, he has been chipping away at this goliath of a branch with a little handsaw. Whenever the kids and I were driving him bonkers he would disappear up a ladder for about 6 hours and proceed to cut off about a foot of branch. After about 36 cumulative days of this parental absenteeism, I could stand it no longer and I caved in. Over the chainsaw that is. This is a picture of a very happy man. Hopefully very happy and very agreeable when it comes to renovation decisions.




 And of course in my weaselly little mind, I was figuring this would have to give me some leverage over at least the stove choice. Given that  Legoman has not been endowed with spectacular coordination, there were safety requirements. He came home with the helmet, the ear muffs and even the chainsaw proof chaps. Who knew there was such a thing as chainsaw proof chaps? He then demolished the rest of that branch in record time as well as another small tree and every branch overhanging into the neighbours. Chain happy if you will. There were casualties. Thankfully only our back stairs. See how the bottom two collapsed under large logs and are now propped up on bricks.



Now we have a contractual agreement that he will not cut anything down while I am at work or if he is in charge of the children. Given that this is what I found when he last supervised the children.


Yep, that is the two small children up on the roof, while I am inside obliviously stuffing the roast chook. Can you see why I had reservations about allowing this man to have a chainsaw?

At least the kids are enjoying the offcuts. I did request some large chunks to turn into stools.


Incentives my friends, it's all about the incentives.

19 comments:

  1. I almost jumped up and shouted at the screen when I saw the kids on the roof. Eeeeek. They look happy though! My boy wonder would be tearful and clinging on to something for dear life - poor boy has no doubt inherited my slightly neurotic personality! I love those sliding windows. And I've really enjoyed the last two posts about the *challenges* of renovating/decorating when husbands have an opinion. I will try and keep the incentives in mind when I'm next grappling with this......F x

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  2. i must say i am romanticising the thought of renovating, it looks like you guys are having so much fun. but i know there is no risk of us doing it for a while so i can dream away! those doors look so beautiful though. :)sarah

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  3. Aren't they happy with a nice new tool. Mine spent Sunday in his own private Idaho with earmuffs and a hired nail gun. Do you think yours will miss having his branch to go to and lop?

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  4. P.S. Where but where did you find those crackerjack doors?We were considering retail for similar. Amazing find!

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  5. Annie, I think he plans to just sneaking outside with those earmuffs on to "finish cleaning under the house".
    The doors are from Woolloongabba demolitions who are based at Rocklea but couldn't be stuffed changing their name- they are on beaudesert rd. They had several other lovely sets of french doors. There is also The demolition place in cavendish rd coorparoo where we have bought floorboards if that helps.

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  6. I did laugh when I read this, I totally agree- incentives something to think about.

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  7. Very funny, my Mr Bea once asked about a chainsaw! Needless to say, we hired someone! Ada :)

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  8. Yes sometimes all they need is a little incentive (whatever works).

    Wow love the french doors, and like the idea of them between kitchen and living room. Your place will be spectatcular when it all comes together.
    x

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  9. Big fan of french doors,hoping to use another set in our kitchen makeover(if we ever finish nextdoor)Had to laugh at the last post.We have a few pesky trees overhanging the house/clothesline and Mr CH would never be caught hanging like Legoman.Congrats on your sheet finds,takes a big stash of complementary clours to make something doesn't it?

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  10. Awesome find Mel. How neat you can take your kiddos shopping - mine would demo the demo yard! And don't men have an interesting way looking after the kids! xx

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  11. Oh my my what can I say except chainsaws and my husband do not go hand in hand, the scare the *@#! out of me. He does still have his hands and legs but we did have a bit of an incident with a power line, he was just being neighbourly while he was borrowing my Dad's chainsaw luckily no serious damage but a few streets were without power for a while. So being that it's my Dad's he's banned from it ;) But I do understand how your mind works Mel, they do like their boys toys. Great salvage finds:) xx

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  12. We have some French doors here to reuse that we pulled out of a room years ago but we need to replace our scary sliders with big wooden ones like those. Thanks for the Demo Yard tip!

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  13. Your place is looking amazing!!
    And I love the chainsaw diaries.
    I often wonder what toys my farmboy would lust after if he couldn't justify them as a work expense.

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  14. Love those doors!
    I love going to salvage yards and just looking...I used to love the Big Red Shed.

    I think the things men find enjoyable are just plain crazy.
    Chain saw? No thanks.
    Our house is VERY high set and yet Daddy R loves to get up on the roof. Recently he was up there "just to check that the city views were still there."
    Crazy.

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  15. Love the sliding windows, will be great to see what they look like once installed. It's so funny, this time last year my kids were drawing on tree stumps out in our front garden. I had to go and read my blog post about it to remind me of what happened with our monster hedge! Good luck with the renovations, I'll be reading with interest. We are hopefully on the home straight, just got the kitchen to finish, bathroom and cloakroom to do next month and then the master bedroom. Getting there. xx

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  16. Wow,your place is a hive of activity!
    Haven't been able to see the photos properly until now ... ipad playing up with blogger images sometimes. Would you mind telling me how you format your photos before posting them? ie do you change the resolution/image size? And do you get the photos straight off your computer or from flickr or other website? Trying to figure this problem out and your blogs is one that's really not working on my ipad this week. Thanks.

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  17. At least yours asked. Mine just came home with one. Of course after 40 years, we've reached a point where we just go with the flow. We do our on thing except when it comes to big purchases and then we work that out. Hang in there on the things you really, really want. We remodeled our kitchen a few years back and I am so sorry I gave in on the microwave over the stove. I let the Hubbs talk me out of it and I regret it to this day. But it's a small thing and life goes on. Still, hold your ground for what you really, truly want.

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  18. Enjoyed catching up on what you've been up to.

    Your place is looking lovely.

    I've also had my lad up the fig tree, happily cutting away. Must be that cave man mentality - (me chop wood, grunt grunt). However I've never heard of chainsaw chaps, useful but funny.

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  19. Ah yes, my husband has been forbidden from purchasing a chain saw. I fear that one day he might just show up here one with one, he has tendencies towards self-gifting!. The kids on the roof had me laughing out loud though! Totally the sort of thing you expect from a husband that is supposed to be supervising the children. xx

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